WASHINGTON: Kamala Harris was closing in on Monday’s vice-presidential pick, with an announcement expected within 24 hours, as she seeks to introduce herself to the American public with a battleground tour just three months before the election.
All roads to the White House lead through a handful of swing states, and Harris will begin her five-day run Tuesday in the biggest — Pennsylvania — as she builds momentum for her Nov. 5 showdown with Republican Donald Trump.
“This election is a fight for our country, our future and our most basic freedoms and rights,” she wrote on X on Monday.
“We believe in the promise of America — and we’re in this fight because we know what’s at stake.”
Fresh from securing enough delegate votes to secure the Democratic nomination, the nation’s first female, black and South Asian vice president heads to the Chicago national convention in two weeks in complete control of her party.
The 59-year-old former prosecutor has obliterated fundraising records, drawn huge crowds and dominated social media on her way to erasing the lead Trump built in the polls before President Joe Biden left the race.
Next on the agenda is the vice presidential pick, which is expected to be announced Tuesday before her evening rally alongside a mystery candidate in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania’s largest city.
The Keystone State is the most prized real estate among the hotly contested battlegrounds that decide the Electoral College system.
Pennsylvania is governed by 51-year-old Democrat Josh Shapiro, a front-runner in a so-called “veepstakes” shortlist that also includes fellow state governors Tim Walz and Andy Beshear, as well as Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly and U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg.
This week, Harris will tour the more racially diverse Sun Belt and the southern states of Arizona, Nevada, Georgia and North Carolina, seeking to shore up the black and Hispanic vote that has been drifting away from Democrats.
Just a month ago, Trump was in cruise control as he opened up a significant lead in swing state polls after Biden’s dismal debate performance, with the Republican mogul keeping the country in limbo over his own vice presidential pick.
Energetic and two decades younger than the 78-year-old Trump, the vice president got off to a fast start, raising $310 million in July — more than double Trump’s haul — according to her campaign.
While Biden strongly appealed for a return to civility and the preservation of democracy, Harris focused on the future, making the hard-fought “freedom” of voters a touchstone of her campaign.
While she has distanced herself from some of the left-leaning positions she took during her ill-fated 2020 primary campaign, Harris has not given a wide-ranging interview since entering the race.
Meanwhile, Trump and his fellow Republicans have tried to adjust to their new adversary and hone their attacks against Harris — first saying she’s dangerously liberal on immigration and crime before suggesting she’s lying about being black.
